Green machine breaks electric land speed record

The pioneering Drayson Racing team has broken the land speed record for an electric car — hitting 204.185mph (328.6kph) on an airfield.

The Drayson B12 69/EV electric Le-Mans Prototype,above, smashed the previous record of 175mph, which had stood for almost forty years.

To break the record the average speed had to be recorded from two separate runs carried out within an hour. Businessman and “car nut” Lord Drayson, below, who was behind the wheel of the B12 69/EV, said: “I’m delighted. It is not the outright speed of 203mph that is most impressive about this record, but the engineering challenge of accelerating a 1000kg electric vehicle on a short runway over a measured mile.”

Google’s chairman Eric Schmidt spent two hours at the race track watching practice runs, but had to leave before the record attempt took place. Google are themselves keen to develop technology for green energy.

The record took place in near perfect weather conditions at Elvington Airfield, England. The 850horsepower B12 69/EV was adapted from a Le Mans Series car the firm had originally designed to run on bio-ethanol fuel, with a lightweight 20kw/hr battery being used instead.

Drayson Racing, which is based in the university town of Oxford, is a research and development outfit which aims to boost the use of sustainable technologies in motorsport.

Their record achievement comes just days after Nissan unveiled its Zeod RC (Zero Emission On Demand Racing Car), below, which it intends to use in the 2014 24-hour Le Mans race.The previous record was set by Battery Box General Electric in 1974.